Prep Girls Hoops: Eastland off to dominant start

FORRESTON — It’s only a couple of games into the girls basketball season, but the first two performances by Eastland have been dominant ones.

After blowing out Winnebago by 35 in their season opener this week, the Cougars (2-0) pounced on Christian Life early in the first game of the Forreston Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday and rolled to another lopsided victory, 63-24 over the Eagles.

Eastland outscored Christian Life 21-5 in the first quarter and led by a commanding 21 points by half.

“There was a stretch where the ball didn’t get across half court for (Christian Life) and we played with so much fire and intensity at the beginning,” Eastland coach Colleen Henze said. “You always worry about that because sometimes when you do that, it’s downhill from there. They lost their intensity for a little bit but I felt like they got it back by the end of the first half.”

For the second straight game, it was Lexi Macomber leading the Cougars in the rout. The six-foot junior scored a game-high 20 points against the Eagles. She scored 22 in the season opener.

“And that’s without playing the fourth quarter in both games,” Henze said. “She’s doing a nice job getting herself in position. She loves to score. She’s getting down the floor and getting herself there and they do a good job of getting her the ball too.”

Henze credits her team’s unselfish play as a big reason why the Cougars have been able to score 135 points in their first two contests.

“They’ve been unselfish and gotten the extra pass to get people good shots,” Henze said. “We still missed a ton of shots tonight but we have played unselfish and made the extra the pass and gotten people higher percentage shots.”

Stockton 37, Rochelle 36

Sluggish play is no surprise in the early part of the season, and that was what took place between the Blackhawks and Hubs. Fortunately for Stockton, it did just enough to squeak out a one-point victory.

The Blackhawks (1-0) didn’t make their first -- and only -- field goal of the final quarter until 37 seconds were left when Kelsey Wright tied the game at 36-36. Wright then had four shots from the charity stripe in the last 27 seconds. She made only made one, but that was all the Blackhawks needed to escape with a victory.

“She was tired,” Stockton coach Denny Young said of Wright. “She’s not in basketball shape. None of them are. When we get them there she’ll go up there and she’ll knock those down. A win’s a win. I knew coming in that we’d probably struggle shooting the ball, which we did. But that’ll come. They’re getting their legs. It’s early.”

Forreston 45, Winnebago 26

A great all-around game by senior point guard Maggie Curry helped the host Cardinals blow out the Indians. Curry scored a game-high 17 points, pulled down 9 rebounds, dished 5 assists and also nabbed a pair of steals all in the first three quarters.

“She’s playing big as of right now,” Forreston coach Tim Bukoski said. “She’s a coach on the floor. She’s been playing basketball a long time and now she’s showing her experience. It’s her senior year and she’s leading the team.”

The Cardinals (1-1) held a comfortable 27-7 lead at halftime and never allowed Winnebago to draw closer than 17 in the second half.

“I thought we had some good unselfish play tonight,” Bukoski said. “We had good ball movement. I thought we got the ball down low and crashed the boards extremely hard. I thought defensively when we did an excellent job when we went to the zone.”